I have to be honest – I hate these clickbait-style headings, but this one is a great story worth sharing, so I apologize.

You constantly look for new paid and organic traffic sources as a job board. I always joke that job boards are in the business of buying and selling clicks, not job postings. 

Most job boards limit their focus to display, SEO, paid social media, paid LinkedIn and aggregators as their primary traffic sources. I like to go more in other directions that are not widely used.  

So, this post is a story about a traffic channel that is less popular but can be very potent for job boards, especially for niche ones.

Reddit as a traffic source for job boards

Let me ask if you are leveraging Reddit as a traffic source for your job boards. If not, here's why you should consider it. 

Here's a bit of info on Reddit before we dive in. 

Reddit is a social media platform where users can submit and organize content like links, text posts, and images into specific themed subreddits. The platform allows users to vote on submissions to influence visibility and engage in community discussions, serving as a news, entertainment, and advice resource. 

This is one platform that offers access to diverse targeted communities, potentially providing a rich source of qualified candidates.

Arguments for using Reddit as a traffic source

Targeted Audiences: Reddit has numerous subreddits dedicated to specific industries, professions, and interests. Job boards can target these communities to reach audiences highly relevant to the jobs they're posting, increasing the likelihood of finding qualified candidates. 

Brand Building: For job boards, establishing a presence on Reddit can help build their brand among key demographics. Job boards can enhance their reputation as a trusted resource by engaging in communities and providing value.

Ease of start: Coding a Reddit job-sharing bot takes a few hours and is relatively low-risk and low-effort to build. A bit of GPT magic is on top to personalize the posts, and you are ready. 

Reddit’s traffic boost by Google: Reddit's traffic has significantly increased, almost tripling from 132 million visits in August 2023 to an estimated 346 million in April 2024, according to Semrush and Ahrefs. This surge followed Reddit's public market debut, a partnership with Google allowing AI training on its content, and a Google search update prioritizing user-focused content, which enhanced Reddit's visibility in search results to levels comparable with Instagram. So yes, get on this while you still can. 

Arguments against using Reddit as a traffic source

Community Rules and Etiquette: Reddit has strict rules and norms that vary by subreddit. Promotional content is often frowned upon unless it genuinely contributes to the community. Job boards must navigate these rules carefully to avoid backlash or bans. This is easily avoided by setting up your subreddit, which we will explain below.  

Quality of Traffic: While Reddit can drive a large amount of traffic, the quality of that traffic can be variable. Users might only click through out of curiosity with genuine intent to apply for a job, leading to lower application conversion rates. You have to test this and see if it works with your niche. 

Brand Risk: Negative feedback can spread quickly on Reddit. If a job posting or employer is perceived negatively, it can harm not just the specific campaign but the overall brand of the job board. Nothing spreads faster than lousy feedback on Reddit…

Industry example: 75K clicks from Reddit in one year

Ok, enough talking. Let’s look at some numbers.  

I have worked with customers, both niche and generalist job boards, to set this up, and the results have always been impressive. It is also something that I always set up with the job boards that I operate with my team. However, not everyone is willing to share publicly performance data from Reddit because this is often a strategic advantage. 

One person did this; he was nice enough to share his results and has continued to do so. 

Rodrigo from JobBoardSearch has set up his subreddit and shared jobs for over a year. Here are some stats from his subreddit:

• 7800 subscribers
• 75K clicks in the past 12 months
• 114K clicks since start 

How awesome is that? The effort is a few hours to build a bot that shares jobs. 

How can you start

Well, there are two things you need to do:

First, decide where to post your jobs. Will you use a subreddit or post jobs in existing subreddits?

Creating your niche subreddit can be an excellent way to cultivate a community around specific interests or industries, and it can also serve as a strategic avenue for driving traffic to your job board. Also, you will not have to worry about others' existing rules. 

Second, set up a job posting bot and decide what and how often you want to post. 

That’s it! Enjoy these clicks.